Excerpt
Preface: Photovoltaic (PV) products are manufactured in many countries and sold all over the world. Most work well and are very reliable, with the result that industry market growth is higher now than at any time in the last 15 years. From available worldwide statistics, it appears that product failures are rather few, but they are still significant. In addition, the module performances produced by some manufacturers do not always meet customer expectations. Even though the overwhelming majority of PV companies deploy products and systems of uniform quality (hereinafter referred to as quality products and systems), those that do not need to be brought up to the level of the rest of the PV industry in order to avoid jeopardizing customer confidence in the quality and reliability of PV products and systems. The purpose of this Quality Management in Photovoltaics training manual is to help the PV firms install their own quality management systems and meet established international quality standards. Achieving a benchmark international quality for PV components and systems will not happen overnight. Some very real barriers must be removed. Good quality always costs less in the end, however, and companies that strive for it can expect to be rewarded with greater profits. Establishing a quality manufacturing process and maintaining a quality assurance system are sometimes viewed as expensive undertakings, especially for small or medium-size companies. On the contrary, it has been proved that the presence of a quality manufacturing management system actually results in cost savings, even in the first year the system is installed. Other types of industries that are facing similar quality assurance challenges have created solutions that the PV industry can study and adopt. Today the ISO 9001:2000 standard is the internationally accepted system for quality management of the manufacturing process for distributors, system assemblers, and installers. This is a generic standard used by many industries. Several PV module manufacturers presently meet the ISO 9001:2000 standard and are certified, but many do not. Of the latter, some simply may not know about the standard, whereas others may think that implementing the ISO 9001:2000 is too technical or expensive, or both, to be practical for small and medium-size companies.